Dasein’s own Being makes it the privileged starting point of ontology
Evidence
Unlike beings, Being is hard to concentrate on and it is easy to forget to think about it. But one particular entity has a more noticeable Being than others, and that is myself, because, unlike clouds and portals, I am the entity who wonders about its Being. It even turns out that I have a vague, preliminary, non-philosophical understanding of Being already — otherwise I would not have thought of asking about it. This makes me the best starting point for ontological inquiry. I am both the being whose Being is up for question and the being who sort of already knows the answer. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 198
Categorization
- DEFINE: Prepares the pivotal move toward Dasein as the inquirer who already half-knows Being — key orientation for following Being and Time.
- XREF: connects to: Practical involvement precedes detached reflection in his ontology; Dasein’s thrown concreteness displaced pure consciousness as philosophy’s starting point — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 403; Heidegger reverses philosophy by grounding ontology in everyday practical Being-in-the-world — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 221 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Heidegger reverses philosophy by grounding ontology in everyday practical Being-in-the-world
#expands(0.90) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 221 - Practical involvement precedes detached reflection in his ontology
#expands(0.85) - Dasein’s thrown concreteness displaced pure consciousness as philosophy’s starting point
#qualifies(0.80) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 403 - Dasein’s being is constituted by time and place, not universal reason
#qualifies(0.75) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 291 - The ontological difference distinguishes specific entities from the Being they have.
#qualifies(0.72)